The labels "Hellenes" and "Hellas" are often considered to be collective names for the Greeks and have a close connection with the term "Panhellenes." This article studies the process of naming the Greeks in the Archaic period and the relationship between these collective names and the notion of Panhellenism. By a literary and etymological examination of the relevant sources, it suggests that the designation "Hellenes" probably did not evolve from that of "Panhellenes" and that the terms "Hellenes" and "Hellas," but not "Panhellenes," probably have generic significance in the sixth century. Furthermore, with the Olympic Games and the Hellenion, a Greek sanctuary in Naucratis, as two study cases, the article shows the complexity of the development of Greek identification. On the one hand, collective names like "Hellenes" and "Hellas" have a centripetal force on trans-regional occasions, and on the other, those events also feature competition, privilege and express civic identities of both individual and community, which seems to be divisive.
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